The improvement rates of dysphagia at 28 days of treatment were 41.67% (45/108) in the DVDMS-PDT group and 5.66% (3/53) in the TPC group (P < 0.0001); at 2 months, the rates were 42.11% (24/57) vs. 11.11% (2/18) (P = 0.0141). The least squares (LS) mean changes in the dysphagia index from baseline for the two groups were 0.01 ± 0.061 and 0.45 ± 0.097, respectively (difference: -0.44, 95% CI: -0.66, -0.21, P = 0.0002, Table 2).
The overall health status improvements in quality of life between the DVDMS-PDT group and the TPC group are shown in Figure 3A, with more significant improvements in the DVDMS-PDT group (LS mean change from baseline: -26.66 ± 2.522 vs. -39.81 ± 4.269; difference: 13.15; 95% CI: 3.37, 22.94; P = XXXXX). In terms of symptoms, the esophageal cancer supplementary questionnaire results showed that the DVDMS-PDT group had more significant improvements in eating, reflux, pain, swallowing, obstruction, and dry mouth compared to the TPC group (Supplementary Table 1).